What I would add is an arch made of rock - like a pillar of rock and then an arch connecting it to the rest of the cliffs. If done right I think it would look really cool. Just need to watch that it does not conflict with the vast look of the cliff. Might work - or not.

Cool, it's not actually a problem that I couldn't tell what those couple of things in your scene were by the way, I think it adds to the kind of ethereal nature of the scene, which is good. Fair point on the volcano, the way i was suggesting it was to have it way back in the distance anyway so again you could've faked the smoke with a texture plane. However, as you say you're not in to the texturing side of things then fair enough if you don't think you'll be able to incorporate that or the mountain planes (With the mountains by the way you wouldn't actually have to texture them, just create mountain shaped planes and cover them in fog so they become silouettes in the backdrop, no texture required, not saying you should do that, just pointing out a way you could cheat for future reference)

The meteorite thing is worth trying, if one of the meteors had landed in the foreground and was larger than the ones in the sky it would help with the sense of scale, making it seem like the ones in the sky were further away.

Worth trying, but what I always do is save a few copies of these sort of scenes and try different things out on each, then if they don't work you have your original to fall back on. I wouldn't want to go ahead and suggest you should definately add something that might mess up your scene

Just a few days left everyone - really looking good. All in by 23:59 Friday. If you can make a post when you're done and let me know what your final screenshots for the voting are, I'll put them in. Else I'll just use your latest post. Then I'll start the voting some time Saturday for a couple days.

Major Banter wrote:Zecrah, you've come from nowhere yet have rapidly become a Hammer God.

I haven't said anything this whole time but it just seems like the house is so dark and low contrast, it doesn't draw or hold any attention, yet it is the only piece in the scene so it should. The edges of the canyon walls pulling down into the center of the picture draw the eyes in as well as the edge of the walls and the water. It's all leading fantastically to the house in the center but the house is shrouded by fog which lowers its contrast and destroys the focus it should be holding. It needs to be well lit, saturated, high contrast and high detail to hold the eye and create a really unified composition because right now it repels focus, leaving my eyes listing around the image not knowing where to go.

It's probably as easy as adjusting the camera angle, giving the lighting a more orange glow and pointing the sun at the house so it is in full light, and your composition will be far better.

In lieu of shifting the camera angle down so the house is in the crutch of the sky/canyon walls I put it on a plateau. You probably wouldn't do that but the point is it uses the great lines you already have in your image to accentuate the composition. I think this holds the eye much more and presents a better composition overall, as well as adding interest and an artistic flair. It doesn't particularly reflect "vastness" very well though. I also made it more orange but if you want to continue with the harsh blues then you would still have a lot of fun lighting possibilities to explore.

If you were to apply the same ideas to all three images it wouldn't matter that the map doesn't really reflect the subject matter perfectly, the wow factor would be more important. This is why Jimonions omage looks so good straight off the bat. Look at his use of lines in this paintover:

Everything is pointing at the focal points, the high value high contrast blue thingy in the middle. Even though the second light source is creating a second focal point, it has a similar hue to the rest of the piece, making the contrasting blue in center stage stand out even more. With a bit of composition work your image could be just as impressive. Or maybe just think about it for the next one.

Stormy makes a very strong argument for the most part. His paint over is very close to what I had in mind regarding the lighting in your scene.

I really like the effect created by the fog against the cliffs in the distance. It helped give a sense of large scale in my opinion. However, the house being raised up like that totally blocks it from sight, which is why I disagree with that idea.

What you have now is pretty good, but the house just feels a bit insignificant in your scene because it's totally covered in the cliff's shadow. It helps clue the viewer in to the size of the cliff, but I think simply comparing the size of the house to the cliff alone is enough since this is a still image. You definitely want to go for eye candy in map battles. It's not just vastness you want in your entry this time around, it's vastness and prettiness (not to say your entry isn't pretty).

Srredfire mentioned adding some light in the windows to indicate there are lights on inside the house. I think it's a great idea that would take far less time and effort than Stormy's idea, with the end result being just as good, especially if it compliments the blue fog well. I'd go for a warm orange color that makes the house seem comfy-cozy.

if got to resign from this map battle unfortunately at the lkast moment. Did not finished my scene, because of the amount of schoolwork i had the past 2 weeks, and a family matter that occupied me the whole week.